Former controller for Carmel-based Estridge Homes sentenced to 21 months in fraud

A former controller for Carmel-based Estridge Homes was sentenced Monday to nearly two years in federal prison after he pleaded guilty in March to fraud charges.

Thomas Carter was indicted in Oct. 2016 on one count of bank fraud, according to court documents. In the indictment, federal prosecutors alleged Carter, while working as the controller for the Carmel-based home builder, deposited approximately $364,000 of the company's money into his own bank account.

He was sentenced Monday to 21 months in prison followed by two years of supervised release, according to sentencing documents.

Court documents allege Carter began paying himself from the company bank accounts within a month of beginning his employment there in February 2013. Beginning in March 2013, the documents allege, Carter paid himself from company accounts roughly 48 times, changing entries in the company's Quickbooks software to make it appear as if the checks were paid to a vendor while actually depositing the funds in his own bank account.

Between March 2013 and May 2016, prosecutors allege Carter paid himself more than $580,000 — his salary, plus $340,597 of the company's money.

In March 2016, two Estridge Homes bank accounts were overdrawn, according to court documents. Upon learning the overdrafts couldn't continue, prosecutors allege Carter falsely represented incoming wire transfers to the bank and falsified related documents.

Carter said he began attending Debtors Anonymous to address his financial issues and "was living above his means" and needed to "maintain a certain type of lifestyle for his three children," according to court documents.

U.S. Attorney Josh Minkler argued in a sentencing memorandum that Carter's "excuses" were "hardly sympathetic" to his case.

"Instead, they alternately blame the victim and his family for his having committed the crime," Minkler argued. "Nothing in his explanations accounts for the fraud he committed almost immediately upon starting work with an employer who took him in and paid him well."

Carter faced a maximum sentence of 30 years' imprisonment, a $1 million fine and five years of supervised release, according to court documents. Prosecutors recommended a shorter sentence due to his lack of criminal history.